Minggu, 06 Juni 2010

Freedom to Act Against Ourselves

Freedom to Act Against Ourselves by Robert RicciardelliFather is increasingly bringing His government upon the earth to quicken mankind towards His image and intentions. It is time to assess and discuss the complex aspect of human behavior from a Kingdom perspective. I pray we ask the Lord often to reveal to us what needs to be known - that which may be hidden, and help us to receive it, and implement it in our lives for His glory.

The Gospel of the Kingdom is the redemptive manner in which God intends for His Will to be accomplished in the earth. This, in itself, should alert us to the misappropriation of prevailing messages of the “preparing us for heaven” gospel. Yes thankfully heaven is in the mix, but the place called heaven is for later while the work of spreading heaven on earth is present and ongoing.

This Kingdom is more than the redemptive act accomplished in the Person of Christ, resulting in our going to heaven. We are thankful for redemption, but we cannot remain stuck there, waiting on Him or heaven, while all the while, He is waiting on us. He has empowered us with His Spirit and therefore the power of heaven is within us. No more hanging on for Jesus to return when He is hanging out with us to occupy until He comes.

The sheer weight of the word Kingdom carries governmental connotation, which lovingly demands a behavioral response from us. Christ presented and demonstrated a “Father pleasing” life that is beyond doctrine and rituals. There must be a response to the declarations of, “The Kingdom of God, is at hand, and The Kingdom of God is within you, and I hear the echoes of Apostle Paul’s cry of laboring until Christ becomes fully formed in us.

New Birth beyond the “heaven and hell” destinationMost of us have read the Bible with the lens of being born again and going to heaven as the final prize. And then collecting many more into our buildings to sing “I’ll fly away”, while expecting the world to “fry away” anytime soon. Being born of the Spirit has always been only the entrance into the Kingdom of God, which is the living realm of being Spirit filled attractors of His heavenly essence upon the earth. The end game of heaven for each of us will come, but now while we are here, we bring the power and presence of God through our natural lives. This season for us is just getting started, and the first step is to begin to shed our religious ways, that many times distracts us. Darkness in each of us needs to exposed and expelled so that more of His light and nature can flow from us.

The new birth represents the coming out of darkness and being reborn into the Kingdom sphere of Agape and Light. When this occurs, I am empowered with Kingdom understanding, and am free to act against myself or the nature of self.

The new birth is Father’s insemination of His eternal seed to each person who receives and embraces Christ.

John 1:12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

It communicates the essence of the New Creation by restoring to me eternal Life, and being raised up in the form of His Agape. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! This is indeed, that which was taken from us in the transgression of Man and now restored to us in the Last “Son of Man”. As His children we once again have the “God in us” potential to be human as God intended. His Life, given to me is that which enables me to act against myself, since my life is not my own, and since now I have chosen to live as a Father pleaser.

God is Love and Christ appeared as Love Incarnate for the sole purpose or rather, the specific purpose of being the one that could and did act against Himself. This He did for the single purpose of bringing in a new creation, one that is capable of acting against self in order to live as Him for the world. His life showed the way and His death and resurrection secured the way for all of us.

That purpose is stated in Heb 8:10: I come to do Thy will, O God. This, of course, is restated in the encounter at Gethsemane: Not my will, but Yours be done. We can now see the manner in which Father intends for His will to be accomplished on the earth through us who also say, “Father, not my will, but yours be done in my life.” Becoming incarnate ambassadors of God’s nature, which is Agape love, is His will for us.

The activated ingredients of His nature are present and revealed through His children. Many have said a prayer without revelation and the actuality of becoming an empowered follower Jesus and His ways. As Christ is becoming fully formed in us through becoming disciples of His way, truth, and life, His nature will increasingly and supernaturally be revealed. Living a life that Father intends for each of us is the evidence of the power of God within us. This is not works based on anything but an outward flow of His agape nature in us. Religion has rules to follow that create a form of godliness, but it falls far short of His power, His glory, and cannot be sustained.

So we live under His governance and His Kingdom government has no end. Nations will continue to rise and fall, but His Kingdom will continue to come while His people rise up as Kingdomized servants who carry the hope for humanity. These are exciting times, as the opportunity to present everlasting hope has never been better. We have the freedom through Christ to put down our nature, and living in His nature. There is no greater measurement to our daily living than how much we love our Father, and love others. You have come a long way baby, so have I, and we got a long way to go. But He is with us, and the gates of he shall not prevail against us, or His Eternal Kingdom.